Man dives into a pool wearing a full racing bodysuit. Swims a single length of front crawl. Alone. Is rewarded with $1 million for breaking the world record. Could this be the dullest clip of sporting action in recent memory, perhaps ever? Furthermore, his feat isn’t either an official world record or at all sporting. And action is only applicable to his efforts in the most basic sense of the world.
The swimmer is Kristian Gkolomeev; the video of his swim a promo for next year’s inaugural Enhanced Games. The million bucks is presumably just a rounding error in the hefty resources backing this initiative to test the boundaries of athletic achievement by allowing the use of performance enhancing drugs.
We are asked to take on trust Gkolomeev’s claimed 20.89 seconds in the banned ‘supersuit’ as well as his subsequent 21.03 in a legal costume - both inside the relevant records maintained by World Aquatics. The Greek-Bulgarian swimmer’s 21.59 in the final at the Paris Olympics placed him just fifth, a third of a second behind the victor. This was his fourth Olympics. He is 31 years old.
World records are rarely broken in Olympic finals - in the pool or on the athletics track - such is the pressure of competition on top of the series of qualifying rounds. That does not detract one iota from the thrill of their jeopardy. A broken record pays simply a euphoria bonus.
Usain Bolt has run the three fastest 100m in history. One was a world record in the 2009 World Champs final; the other two were in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic finals, the first also in a world record time. Cue euphoria, thrice.
Lesser competitions often dangle bonuses for broken records that exceed the winners’ rewards. This is an attempt to sharpen the appetite of athletes who might otherwise be coasting, as well as the anticipation of ticket-buyers. Both prizes, though, can be dwarfed by basic appearance fees for the biggest box office draws.
The Enhanced Games is taking these economics to extremes. Its organisers, with founder Aron D’Souza to the fore, argue their project matters in that it is testing the possible effects of scientific innovation on the human condition, especially longevity. Be that as it may, their Games do not otherwise matter at all. Hence rewards for ‘record’ breakers that are unheard of in the sports involved - swimming, athletics and weightlifting.
Whether sixteen or so events across three sports over four days can draw a crowd to Las Vegas next May is irrelevant. Easy to pack small venues with rubberneckers and free tickets - in this city more than any other perhaps. It is the global online audience that will count. D’Souza has been quoted anticipating more than a billion viewers. Last time I looked, the Enhanced Games’ own YouTube clip of Gkolomeev’s swim had just 43,047 views.
Still, there’s a full year in which to crank up the hype, and attempt to corral a cadre of athletes prepared to jettison whatever may be left of their conventional careers to act as sporting lab rats. Having been one of the 43,047, it’s safe to say that without competitive tension between athletes as well as between competitors and the record books, then these inaugural Games may prove their only edition.
Plus, of course, records simply have to be broken. The watching public, whatever their individual motivations, will surely not tune in for a second time if a bunch of juiced-up, long-in-tooth athletes fail to match the clean feats of the likes of Usain Bolt and Gretchen Walsh.
Smash their marks in tight competition, however, and it’s conceivable that the roster of events and record attempts will be expanded. Provided that the Enhanced Games’ backers, which include the likes of Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr, can see a way to a return on their investment - whether monetary or otherwise.
The morality of the Enhanced Games has already been much debated. Critics express an unwillingness to be complicit in athletes jeopardising their health for our enjoyment, as well as the shadow ‘enhanced’ records might cast over genuinely clean endeavours. Proponents invoke freewill, as well as the dubiousness of many existing record performances due to the prevalence of performance enhancing drugs in elite sport.
“Define safe. Space travel isn’t safe. Climbing Everest isn’t safe. Yet we call these pursuits noble. The Enhanced Games? Safer than both.” Aron D’Souza interviewed in The Times earlier this smonth.
Personally, I’m not overly concerned by the application of technology to aid athletic performances, provided its use is overt and well understood. Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-2 hour marathon in 2019 was a fascinating exercise which has paved the way for much faster times in the sport in the years since, even though his own run was invalid as an official record for reasons which were obvious and accepted from the outset.
Super shoes and a phalanx of rotated pacers were the right side of the moral line for me. Drug use wouldn’t have been.
The moral line will always be blurry though. I’m no mountaineer. I’ve never hankered after climbing Mount Everest. Even less so after being transfixed - traumatised too - by the 1996 documentary of one of actor Brian Blessed’s three failed attempts. I’m intrigued, nevertheless, by the current debate over the mountaineering ethics of the use of xenon gas to speed up ascents of the iconic peak.
“The only reason why we are working with xenon is to make climbing safer, to protect climbers from high altitude sickness. We can see people dying on Everest every year and this may be one step to improve the situation to make climbing high altitude mountains safer.” Mountain guide, Lukas Furtenbach
Welcome scientific advance, blow to the purity of the climbing challenge, or both? And what, if any, are the long-term effects on the xenon-enhanced climbers? Aron D’Souza may have a view too on the nobility of such climbs and not just their safety.
My bet is that the Enhanced Games will prove short lived, but that in years to come their proponents will be able to point to lessons learned that will have been applied in mainstream sport - allowing all parties to claim some form of moral victory. Sport existing in its perpetual doping grey zone.
Brian Blessed tackled Everest without supplementary oxygen, let alone xenon gas. In spite of the low resolution, Summit Fever still rewards watching. You can see it here. The Enhanced Games’ documentary of Kristian Gkolomeev’s 50m swim is altogether slicker but far less stirring. Watch it here